The Peepeekisis First Nation opens the Chief Thunderbird Lodge
- Memory McLeod | July 24, 2023
The Peepeekisis First Nation celebrated the opening of its new community hub, Chief Thunderbird Lodge in June with a nod to the unique history of the band, a salute to the proud heritage passed down through the veterans and an eye on the future of next generation members.
Urban Headwoman Cicely Poitras pointed out that the administration is keen to take special considerations for future generations and the community hub is a place for them to come to learn about the stories of the ones who went before them.
“We are excited about a few projects we have underway and what drives that is the desire to create something for them, our young people,” she said. “The hub was built to create hope for them to show them where we come from and a place to learn and grow together as a community.”
The location of the new hub holds a lot of memories for some of the kateyak (elders) who remember the popular and well attended sports days, baseball and hockey tournaments and other cultural and familial ceremonies. The band office was also built on the site, which for a time housed Chief Enoch Poitras and his family. It’s a time his daughter Cicely remembers fondly.
“I was maybe only four years old then, but we knew there was a morgue in the basement and it was a dark, cold and spooky space,” she said. “So, we used to dare each other to run across and touch the wall and come back,” she recalled with laughter. That whole area holds good memories for our people.”
These days the site houses the powwow grounds and a skating rink, so with the edition of the lodge it helps to create a central place of activity.
The new lodge houses the veteran’s hall, band office, a store and gas bar and the daycare. It also features a community kitchen.
“We were so proud at our opening to see so many smiling faces, enjoying the food prepared in our beautiful new kitchen,” said Cicely.
The 16-million-dollar legacy project is a nod to the history of the File Hills colony, for which the band was awarded a settlement of $150 million in 2020.
In 1896, the government started the colony as an experiment designed to bring members into assimilation to a colonial lifestyle of farming, agriculture, and communal living.
The colony was designed to encourage students returning from Industrial-style residential schools to abandon the traditional way of life. While the colony was deemed successful by the government’s standards, even out-producing surrounding farms, there were stories of the abusive and intrusive nature of the Indian agents who controlled every aspect of daily lives of the people from arranging marriages to withholding food and rations as punishment among various other grievances.
According to Peepeekisis’s website, a specific claim was submitted in 1986 in which it was determined that “Canada was in breach of its lawful obligations to the band.”
The settlement came as a culmination of the determined efforts of band leadership to bring compensation to the people.